Pets, such as dogs, cats, and other animals, require outdoor play, exercise, physical stimulation, and mental stimulation to be healthy. Animal parks and play areas contribute to the health and well-being of a pet by facilitating an environment where pets can play, exercise, learn, and train off their leash. However, animal parks and play areas tend to lack the equipment necessary to enable improvement to a pet's agility, balance, conditioning, and strength in its hindquarters, which is important for many pets, such as dogs, especially as they age, becoming susceptible to arthritis and hip dysplasia. Moreover, maintaining strong muscles in a pet's legs and hips helps maintain and even improve the pet's mobility. Most animal park and play area agility equipment offered today are agility products that are not “intuitive” for a pet, meaning a pet has to be coached or trained to utilize the products.
An additional problem with animal park and play area equipment is that it may require holes to be dug or concrete to be poured into the ground in order to be installed, thereby destroying grass or other terrain and requiring specialized skills and equipment for installation. Thus, there is a need for animal park and play area equipment that facilitates the development of agility, balance, conditioning, and hindquarter strength in pets, while also being used in a way that does not destroy the terrain. These features also allow the equipment to be portable in nature, allowing a park department or other user to store the equipment during the winter or re-locate the equipment to a different area to give the grass a break from all the animal park and play area traffic.